turnham



. E. TURNHAM.

ILLUMINATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION HLED MAY 17, 1913.

Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

4 SHEETSSHEET I.

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A. E. TURNHAM. ILLUMINATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I7, I9I3- Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2Q Malaya;

A. E. TURNHAM.v

tL-LUMINATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS, APPLICATION FILED MAYH. 1913.

1,193,816. Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- A. E. TURNHAM.

ILLUMINATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY I71 I913- 1 1 93,3 1 6 I Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4- Ive/liar iodically solenoid. :5 I

'drlim with"- a partly transparent surface ALBERTERNEST TURN'HAM, OF ADELPHI, LONDON, ENGLAND.

ILLUMINATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT ERNEST TURNHAM, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 12 John street, Adelphi, in the county of London, England, have invented a new and useful Improved Illuminated Advertising Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates-to advertising apparatus. Its principal object is to produce an advertising apparatus which exhibits different announcements consecutively and is prefer bly adapted to illuminate frequently chang d announcements.

Another object of the invention is todesign an apparatus consisting of a rotary drum bearing advertisements for display and having means for rotating said drum in step by step fashion.

A furtherobject of the invention is to construct an apparatus of said type distinguished by great simplicity of action operating without any external motor, and yet extremely compact and capable of being produced in small or large" sizes of equal efliciency in action.

Stilla further object of the invention is to design an advertising apparatus which is extremely cheap in operation and has very few wearing parts and these can beeasily renewed.

'Yet another object of the inventlon is to enable an apparatus of the kind set out above to be operated without any appreclable noise. U

The invention comprises a device which 1s simply and noiselessly operated to bring advertisements or announcements into view 1n consecutive and frequently changed fashlon.

Broadly, these announcements or advertisements are manipulated upon the surface of a rotary drum and a solenoid or electromagnet is instrumental in the operation thereof.

More definitely defined, the invention consists of a rotatable drum for displaying advertisements thereon and provided with mechanism such as' a ratchet wheel for rotating said drum in step by step fashion. A solenoid is arranged with its core in operative connection with said mechanism and means are arranged in connection with the circuit of said solenoid for alternately perienergizing and deenergizlng the .{Ihe invention also aims at providing the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

Application filed May 17, 1913. Serial No. 768,346.

adapted to be illuminated fromwithin by I an illuminant such as electric lamps and also the drum is provided with end plates upon which certain braking mechanisms are operative.

Convenient embodiments of the present ferred braking device which also appears in Figs. 2 and 3. Fig. 6 is an end view of a construction combining the driving mechanism shown in Fig. 4 and the braking device shown in Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is a diagram of the lighting and driving circuits. L Referring to the drawings, the advertisements or announcements for display or exhibition are inscribed or engraved tlpon the polygonal faces of the drum 1. These faces are made partly transparent or translucent;

in fact, the faces may be made of some light transmitting medium such as inscribed or suitably colored glass. The drum is mounted in an inclosed casing 2 and is carried in bearings 3 and 4. The drum is internally illuminated by illuminants such as electric glow lamps 5 Which are supplied with current through a pair of contact rings 6 and 7 supplied by conductors 8 and 9 having brushes 10 and 11 bearing uponthe respective contact rings 6 and 7 These conductors may be supplied from a. source of electric supply such as a secondary battery 12 through. a device 13 adapted to interrupt and close again the lamp circuit periodi-. cally. This device may be a flasher of any well known form such as an automatic switch depending upon the properties of a bi-metallic strip and forms no part of the present invention. The casing 2 is provided with a front plate 14 which may be slotted or otherwise prepared at 15 to render the advertisement clearly visible which is car- ,ried by that face ,of the drum which is at the when the solenoid is not energized, the core lies at its lowest position, but when the solenoi'd is energized, the core is sucked up. The method of operation of the drum can best be seen in Figs. 2 and 3. ,The spindle 18 of the drum has a ratchet wheel 19 fixed J to it. An arm 20 carried by the core-17 of the solenoid 16 engages with one tooth of this ratchet wheel upon the upward motion of the core .17. Upon the downward movement of the latter, the ratchet wheel is left stationary. The ratchet wheel 19 is provided with teeth equal in number to the polygonal sides of the drum 1 and the throw of the solenoid core is so arranged as to rotate the drum sufiiciently to bring the next flat side of it opposite to the opening 15 after every stroke of the solenoid. The solenoid coils can also be connected to the source of electric supply 12 if desired through the flasher 13. This latter may be then a flasher of the well known double contact type shown .diagrammatically in Fig. 7. Then it will readily be understood that it either makes contact to close the circuit of the lamps. 5 or of the solenoid 16. The effect is then as follows -The flasher, as is seen in Fig. 7 consists of a bi-metallic bar 50 formed in' known manner of two metals having different co-eflicients of linear expansion when heated so that when a current passes through the coil 51 surrounding the bar the resulting heating effect causes the bar to bend toward the-right. The bar is clamped in mem- .bers 52 at its lower. end but the top is fitted with a contact ring of metal 53. When the bar is cool and is straight this ring makescontact with a contact point 54 on the left, but when heated the bar bends and makes contact with the point 55 on the right. Suppose the bar 50 is cool and, as shown in the figure, is contacting with the point 54, there is no circuit through the solenoid 16 but there is a lighting circuit as follows :-from the positive main 56 by wire 57, brush, 58, contact ring 59, wire 60, through the two lamps 61 and 62 connected in series inside the advertisement drum 1, then through the wire 63 to ring 64, brush 65, wire 66, terminal 67, wire 68, contact point 54, conducting ring 53, wire 69, terminal 7 0, wire 71, to the negative main 72. In addition to this there is a closed circuit in parallel with it for the purpose of heating the bi-metallic strip 50; this is as'follows:from the main 56,

wire 73, pilot lamp 74 serving as a series resistance, wire 75, terminal 76, wire 77, through the heating coil 51, wire ,7 8, wire 68, contact point 54, ring 53, wire 69, terminal 70, wire 71, to the negative main 72.

These conditions hold until-the strip 50 is" heated to such an extent that it bends and flies over until' the ring 53 contacts with the point 55.- Both the lighting circuit for the and the heating circuit set out 53, wire 69, terminal 7 0, wire 71 to the nega- .tive' main 72. In this way solenoid 16 is energized and actuates its core. It will be readily understood from the other figures of the drawings that by this means the advertisement drum 1 is rotated through one step,

being non-illuminated during this period. .When the strip 50 has cooled sufiiciently it springs back to make contact with the point 54, the original conditions being set up, the

drum being illuminated as long as the advertisement in question remains stationary opposite the opening 15, see Fig- 1. Meanwhile, the solenoid" core has, of course, dropped under its own weight ready for a fresh actuation. I

An improved and preferred method of driving the drum is shown in Figs. 1 and 4. The drum spindle 18 passes into a hollow sleeve 21 which is fixed to it so as to turn with it either because of the tight fit or owing to a set pin (not shown) passing through both of them. This sleeve carries a tooth wheel 22 which as seen in Fig. 4 is provided with circumferential slots of sub- ,stantially square section. The spindle 18 and sleeve 21 respectively are loosely embraced on either side of the tooth wheel 22 by forked portions of an arm 23. This arm is slotted to provide a slide for a pawl 24. The slot in arm 23 allows radial motion of the pawl 24 to and from the wheel 22. At the extremity of arm 23 farthestfrom the spindle 18 a bell crank lever 25 is pivoted at 26. The vertical arm 27 is slotted and takes a pin 28 fiX'ed in the pawl 24. The horizontal arm 29 of bell crank lever 25 is connected at 30 to'a link 31 which is again pinned at 32 to the upper extremity of the core 17 of the electromagnet 16.

The operation of this driving mechanism is as follows :When the solenoid 16 is energized, the core 17 is raised, and it, by rockto be opposite to it, and on further movement, rotates arm 23, pawl 24, wheel 22 and drum 1. The limit of travel of the core is determined by the stop, for instance, a bridge of wire 33 fixed to the case 2 of the machine. When the solenoid core 17 begins to fall, the rocking of bell crank lever 25 first withdraws the pawl 24 and thenthe arm 23 slides over the surface of the drum spindle and allows the drum to remain sta-' tionary.

In small size apparatus, the rotating drum will turn as far as the solenoid core 17 pushes it and will there remain at rest, but in larger types the momentum of the drum will cause it to overrun so that successive announcements would not register truly with a the slot 15. In order to overcome this, va-

rious kinds of braking devices may be employed. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, one of the end plates 34 of the drum is provided with a number of holes 35 spaced equidistant from the center of the spindle 18 and equal in number to the sides-of the drum. A spring arm 36 screwed to the base plate 37 of the device has a pin 38 in position to engage consecutively with the holes 35 and is pressed resiliently into the requisite position by means of the spring arm 36.

In Figs. 2, 3, 5 and 6 a positively operated braking mechanism is illustrated. The ratchet operating arm 20 is shown pivoted to the core 17 of the solenoid 16 for clearing purposes and attached to the outside of the body of solenoid 16 is a spring ,arm 39 having a similar function to the spring arm 36 shown in Fig. 1, that is to say, it is provided at its upper end with a pin 40 adapted to engage successively in the recesses 35. The positive withdrawing mechanism consists of a branch arm 41 which as can clearly be seen is provided with a sloping portion 42, the inner surface of which acts as a cam surface and is operated upon by a pin 43 carried on an arm 44 rigid with the top of the core 17 of the solenoid 16.

The operation of this device is as follows: Upon the first upward movement of the solenoid core 17 the pin 43 slides along the inner surface of the portion 42 and thereby pulls the arm 39 away from the end plate 34 of the drum 1 and thereby pulls the pin 40 out of the recesses 35 and releases the drum which can then be turned as-above described. It is obvious that any similar braking mechanism could, if necessary, be employed. In fact in Fig. 6 the form of braking mechanism described is shown working in conjunction with the driving device shown in Fig. 4. In this figure the reference characters correspond to those employed in Figs. 4 and 5,

To insure steady and silent running, it is necessary that the core of the solenoid should operate in its casing with a greater or less dashpot effect. Although no doubt some effect could be obtained by merely the use of air, it is extremely desirable that a liquid such as an oil of suitable thickness should be employed for this purpose. This is illustrated in Fig. 6 where it will be seen the solenoid 16 has a winding 83, disposed about its upper portion only because the ,core 17 has to be attracted upward. Core 17 isprovided with a sort of downwardly extended piston rod 84 carrying a piston j8 5i" secured to the rod 84 by nuts 86 and 87.

This piston 85 is a loose fit in the internal bore of the solenoid core so that it can work in the oil 88 with a dash-pot effect, the oil gradually escaping past the outer edges of the piston 85.

What I claim is 1. An advertising device comprising in combination a rotatably mounted drum bearwheel, when said lever is rocked, end plates' one closing each end of said drum and one being formed with 'a series of holes equally spaced from the center of the end plate, a springy arm fixed to the frame of the device, a pin carried by said arm normally pressed into one of said holes, a cam surface on said arm, a solenoid with its core connected to the second arm of said bellcrank lever to rock the latter and to rotate said toothed wheel and having its core formed with a nose adapted to coiiperate with said cam surface to release said pin at the beginning of the driving movement of the core and means in connection with the circuit of said solenoid for alternately periodically energizing and denergizing the latter.

2. In an advertising device, the combination of a rotatably mounted drum bearing ad vertisements for display, a toothed wheel fixed to one end of said drum, a pawl adapted to turn said toothed wheel, end plates one closing each end of said drum and one being formed with a series of holes equally spaced from the center of the end plate, a springy arm fixed to the frame of.

lease said pin at the beginning of the driving movementof the core and means in connection with the circuit of said solenoid for alternately periodicallyenergizing and deenergizing the latter. a

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to the specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

A. ERNEST TURNHAM, 

